


“Now, get up, drama queen.”: An Analysis of Artemis' perspective in Trials Of Apollo

by eleu, Keyseeker



Series: ToA analysis [9]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Meta, Spoilers for all of Trials of Apollo: beware!, not fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27649307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleu/pseuds/eleu, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keyseeker/pseuds/Keyseeker
Summary: Artemis and Apollo have completely opposite personalities. They both, at their core, have the same kindness, the same compassion, the same sense of justice. But where Apollo is effusive and extroverted, Artemis is extremely restrained with her emotions.Like most siblings, her and Apollo don’t seem to have a habit of talking about their feelings for each other very much. Nevertheless, Apollo makes it clear that he likes spending time with her. That he likes HER. Artemis doesn’t do the same.
Relationships: Apollo & Artemis (Percy Jackson)
Series: ToA analysis [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799089
Comments: 15
Kudos: 84





	“Now, get up, drama queen.”: An Analysis of Artemis' perspective in Trials Of Apollo

**Author's Note:**

> So, a little less than a month ago, I got roped into reading The Trials Of Apollo by Keyseeker’s amazing meta. I loved it more than I could have ever anticipated, and I’ve been gushing about it non stop to her on discord. We had a lot of fun reviewing the series and taking it apart to analyze bit by bit, marveling at the way it keeps growing layers and dimensions the longer one looks at it. Finally, we took out a google doc. The following is the first (hopefully of… more to come) result of our combined excited ramblings. - eleu
> 
> I really, really, REALLY enjoyed getting to scream about Trials of Apollo some more, especially the last book! There's layers that, as deeply as I'd looked into it in the past, I hadn't quite grasped the full depth of! It was a LOT of fun bouncing ideas off of eleu and really connecting things together. Hopefully we'll have more coming soon, this is just the tip of the iceberg of stuff we talked about! - Keyseeker

Artemis and Apollo have completely opposite personalities. They both, at their core, have the same kindness, the same compassion, the same sense of justice. But where Apollo is effusive and extroverted, Artemis is extremely restrained with her emotions.

Like most siblings, her and Apollo don’t seem to have a habit of talking about their feelings for each other very much. Nevertheless, Apollo makes it clear that he likes spending time with her. That he likes HER. Artemis doesn’t do the same. Perhaps no scene is more exemplary of this, than the one in which her and her brother finally reunite, albeit only briefly, at the end of TTT. 

Throughout the whole scene, we can feel her love for him seeping through. From the moment she arrives to the moment she departs, Artemis is literally glued to Apollo's side. But she never reciprocates his gestures and words of affection. She doesn't even look at him for most of the time they remain together. She never even smiles at him. 

He tells her “I love you. I missed you.” She gets embarrassed. She doesn’t know how to reply. She tells him “you have changed.” 

She only touches him once.

> “You also saved me,” I said. “You’re here. You’re actually _here_.” 
> 
> She took my hand and squeezed it. Her flesh felt warm and human. I couldn’t remember the last time my sister had shown me such open affection. (TTT 389) 

Then she’s gone. 

Of course Thalia, who's got a human understanding of emotions, sees all that and feels the need to clarify after. And Thalia is RIGHT to do so. Right to think he needs that clarification. Apollo is shocked to find out how much Artemis truly missed him.

> “It seems so cruel,” she continued. “We lose someone and finally get them back, only to lose them again.”
> 
> I wondered why she used the word _we_. She seemed to be saying that she and I shared this experience – the loss of an only sibling. But she had suffered so much worse. My sister couldn’t die. I couldn’t lose her permanently. 
> 
> Then, after a moment of disorientation, like I’d been flipped upside-down, I realized she wasn’t talking about me losing someone. She was talking about Artemis – Diana. 
> 
> Was she suggesting that my sister missed me, even grieved for me as Thalia grieved for Jason? (TTT 403) 

Artemis cares a lot, but she doesn't seem to know how to communicate it. Which... actually helps explain the murdering of her sweet baby brother's cheating girlfriends, an action that would seem to clash a bit with her characterization of someone who actually values mortal lives. But how else can she show how much she cares? She doesn’t seem to have other outlets to channel her love into, and actions suit her much better than words or physical affection.

Apollo knows his sister. He knows that Artemis cares. By the time that brief reunion happens, it's been 4 books, and he's been hoping so hard, but every time she hasn't shown up to help him he's never doubted that if she could have, she would have. Even in that moment, when it looked like she wasn't coming, he was certain the only reason could be that Zeus had forbidden her. He never thought even for a second that she could have just... not cared enough to bother.

But he was still completely unprepared for Thalia’s words.

> Thalia must have read my expression. “The goddess has been beside herself,” she said. “I mean that literally. Sometimes she gets so worried she splits into two forms, Roman and Greek, right in front of me. She’ll probably get mad at me for telling you this, but she loves you more than anyone else in the world.”
> 
> A marble seemed to have lodged in my throat. I couldn’t speak, so I just nodded. (TTT 403)

There seems to be a whole ‘can't show weakness’ mindset at play here, which feeds into the wider mentality the gods have adopted. They seem pretty comfortable demanding that mortals throw away their whole lives for them. They expect it, in fact. But do any of them actually expect to ever receive kindness or compassion? Why would they? Those are things only puny mortals need.

Even Artemis buys into this mentality to an extent. She broke down with Apollo over the deaths of her Hunters when they were both on Delos, alone, and not where her followers and sisters in arms could actually see her. She will still show grief on occasion, and love too, but not to the people she's actually most worried about.

But Apollo hides things from her too.

This becomes evident especially during that last council scene in Tower of Nero. Artemis gives off the impression she doesn’t completely understand how different her and Apollo's situations concerning Zeus have always been. She doesn’t seem to understand how truly, unrepentantly abusive their father is.

Apollo notes that she's the only one who actually looks happy (enthusiastic, in fact, bless her heart) when they all applaud Zeus' acknowledgement of his son’s deeds.

> “Welcome back to godhood, my son. You have done admirably. You are forgiven and restored to your throne!”
> 
> There followed a polite smattering of applause from the other deities.
> 
> Artemis was the only one who appeared truly happy. She even winked at me. Wow. It truly was a day for miracles. (TON 367).

And it's super sweet on her part. But at the same time... We know for a fact she's not the only god who is at least mildly relieved to see Apollo back. But none of the others were happy after that speech.  _ Apollo _ wasn't happy after that speech. 

Because that speech didn't mark any kind of real improvement in Zeus and Apollo's relationship, or inter-council relationships in general. That speech was Zeus reaffirming his control over his son and over everything he'd put him through, and a subtle  _ remember your place _ to everybody else.

Artemis seems to be thinking:  _ Yay! You're back in father's good graces again! _ She actually winks at him. She really seems to believe everything's better now. 

But it's not. 

And we are left wondering if Apollo will tell her now. That no, things are very much not ok. Because he clearly never did before.

It seemed, at one point, like Apollo's insistence in calling Artemis "little sister" was more to annoy her than anything else. Heck, he himself even admitted maybe it was just that, or maybe it was that he wanted to feel needed, that he wanted to feel like he had someone to protect. But Artemis is no more his little sister than he is her little brother. Artemis is his equal. She doesn't need his protection.

Except, it’s starting to look like that was another... at least half lie? That the truth is, Apollo DID protect her. By never telling her how bad it really was. How trapped and hopeless he really felt.

So once again, the question is... will he tell her now?

Artemis isn’t completely clueless regarding her father. She wasn’t surprised by Zeus’s actions at the Parthenon.

> Then Artemis stepped out of the shadows. “Father, this hero has fought long and hard for our cause. His nerves are frayed. We should take that into account.
> 
> Jason started to protest, but Artemis stopped him with a glance. Her expression sent a message so clear she might have been speaking in his mind:  _ Thank you, demigod. But do not press this. I will reason with Zeus when he is calmer. _ (BOO 448)

But she doesn’t really seem to have internalized how deep it runs. And while she loves Apollo deeply, it almost seems like she doesn’t actually... KNOW him that well. She doesn’t fully understand him. She seemed genuinely surprised at how he’d changed, even after watching a decent amount of his journey. 

Of the two of them, Apollo is the open, expressive, communicative one. He’s the one who has an instinctive understanding of people and who can read between the lines, the one who's good at putting his feelings into words. So if Apollo doesn’t tell her the truth of what Zeus does to him, the truth of how miserable and scared he feels at all times… if he pretends everything is fine and plays dumb… to an extent, Artemis really buys into that act.

Artemis is not a people person, in every sense of the word. She’s not blind to people's feelings and emotions (she can’t be, with her thousands of years of life experience. She’s picked up the basic stuff), but she doesn’t have incredibly deep insight into anyone other than herself. And she doesn’t really care to have more. She doesn't feel the need to share her interiority, she doesn't need others' company, she doesn't get energized by human interaction like Apollo does. She has her Hunters, yes, and she does love them like a kind of family, but they are not her peers. No one other than Apollo is. 

She knows she has him, just as surely as he knows he has her (more surely, in fact, because Apollo is much better than her at expressing affection) and she doesn't need anything more than that. She's perfectly secure and content that way.

So when this whole thing happens… it’s such a shock that she doesn’t really know how to handle it. Losing Apollo was never supposed to be a possibility for her. She is not equipped to function without him. She doesn’t know how to cope. So she frets, and she panics, and to an extent… she rejects the idea that he could really fail, that he could really die altogether. 

The first thing she does after saving his life is call him a drama queen. Which, yeah, fair, he is one, but he really had been about to die there. But Artemis can’t, won’t let herself think about that. 

The same thing happens when they are back on Olympus at the end. She extricates herself out of his embrace, not just because she’s uncomfortable with physical affection, but because she’s uncomfortable with the naked anguish Apollo’s showing her. She’s scared to accept that Apollo really thought he might never see her again. She’s scared to acknowledge how much her brother has truly suffered. She absolutely doesn’t do this with any ill intent; in fact she does this precisely because she loves him too much... but she kind of… immediately pressures him to go back to his usual sunshiny jokey self. She needs him to pretend he’s more fine than he actually is to soothe her fears, and he… complies. Like he must have done thousands of times before.

They have so much to talk, really talk about, and the ending gives no guarantee that they’ll ever actually do it, and if they don’t… will Artemis ever realize how completely they share the same values, the same goals? Will she realize that they actually want the same thing, and that they can work together to achieve it? 

Because it really seems doubtful right now that she’s aware of it. She knows deep down that her brother is a caring, sweet man, but she still believed his lies to an extent. She jokes about him being dumb and irresponsible and a coward, and she does so with affection, but also with a tinge of genuine exasperation, giving the impression she thinks there really is some truth to that.

And she’s not even wrong in thinking so. Apollo was afraid. He hid for so long behind his lies, and he spun them so well, he’d almost started believing them himself.

If Artemis had realized how much Apollo needed her love, her support… how much he needed her. She would definitely have made more of an effort to be there for him. But first, she’d have had to acknowledge the painful reality that she hadn’t noticed. That she had let him shield her from the truth.

Because right now… even having witnessed what Apollo went through, even knowing the kind of person Zeus is, she still doesn’t seem to fully grasp what happened to her brother– partially because she’s lying to herself, trying to pretend that things are more normal, more reparable than they are. Because it’s what she wants to believe.

In the end, she and Apollo are more alike than she may be willing to admit. They've both mastered the art of lying, to others and to themselves, just in different ways. And boy, does this ring painfully true of two siblings who grew up in an abusive household.

It doesn't help that Artemis really does see a softer, more accommodating face of Zeus than the one he shows to everybody else most of the time. She really is daddy's golden girl.

Meanwhile no one inspires more hatred and fear in Zeus than Apollo does, just by existing.

Apollo will need to make it clear to her face, to both tell and show her the full extent of who he is and how he’s changed, for Artemis to get it. He’ll have to admit that he’s been lying to her too, for so long, in his desperation to convince everybody, even and especially himself, that he was as horrible as he felt like he SHOULD be. And she’ll have to face the fact that, at least in part, at least a little bit, she had let herself be fooled by him. It was easier for her to think a little less of her dear, beloved brother, than it was to have to acknowledge how much he was hurting while knowing she'd be powerless to stop it.


End file.
